Tag with a twist...it's new to me!

I used to love playing Tag - but now, I just don't like running because it makes my lower back hurt. So, when I found out that I was "tagged" by Tiffany, I thought, "What an interesting twist!" I'm just gonna copy and paste the rules from her blog:

The rules of the game:
(1) Link to the person that tagged you.
(2) Post the rules on your blog.
(3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
(4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
(5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Six things about me:

1. When I'm angry, I clam up and pout. And I usually hold an imaginary "conversation" with the object(s) of my anger, spelling out all the reasons I'm right and they're not - unless it's one of the kids. Then it's not very imaginary.

2. I used to be addicted to milk. Really addicted. I went through genuine withdrawals for three months when I discovered that Mandy, whom I was nursing at the time, started showing signs of a milk allergy. After that first three months, I was fine. Now, I don't even like milk. I eat cold cereal with vanilla rice milk. It took some getting used to, but it's not too bad. It's better than soy milk, I think.

3. I am really blessed that the only thing that reminds me of morning sickness is the smell of a paper mill. That smell still remains indelibly impressed in my nose and it doesn't take a hormone overdose for the odor to have its usual effect on me. That's another story for another post at another time. Not right now - I just had a nice Sunday dinner and I'd like to keep it.

4. I never wear high heels. Arthritis in my feet won't allow them.

5. Tiffany wrote: "I eat cold cereal super fast because I can't stand it if it is the least bit soggy."
Neither can I. In fact, I have even considered making the child who interrupted my meal FINISH the now soggy cereal. Never actually did it, though.

6. I really love to sew, but more than once, my children have outgrown patterns I had bought for them and clothes that needed mending before the sewing and mending ever got done. I need do something about that.

(Can I write seven things about myself instead of only six?)

7. I like creative writing.

Okay, now I'm supposed to tag someone else. Since my group of blogging friends is still rather small, several of you have already been tagged before. So you don't have to go through all this again, unless you have six more "unimportant" things you can tell us about yourselves!

So, here goes: Sheri, Gail, Tami, Aubrey, CJ, and Cody. Let's get one of the dads involved here - he hasn't updated his blog in a little while!

Mandy doesn't like tomatoes!

When we have salads with our dinner, one of our favorite things to put on them is those little sweet grape tomatoes. Only thing is, Mandy thinks they're grapes.

We've told her over and over and over again they're NOT GRAPES!! They're TOMATOES! We've also reminded her that she HATES tomatoes. She just can't seem to remember all the tomatoes we've found on the counter with little teeth marks in them because she thought they looked like apples. And the grape tomatoes, lightly chewed, that we've found in the garbage can because they looked like grapes. It usually only takes one or two tastes and then she decides that batch isn't any good. But the very next time I get tomatoes, she tries them again.

The other day, we had salads with our dinner. And, true to her tradition, Mandy had to take a grape tomato. Before we could stop her, she had popped it into her mouth. And then the "fun" began.

Her face started the usual contortions, and she said, "I don't like it."

This, time, my compassion had come to an end with this issue. I decided to make her remember that she doesn't like tomatoes. "You will not spit it out. You will swallow it."

Talking with a full mouth, she said, "But I don't like it."

"I know. I told you that it's a tomato and you don't like tomatoes. You decided to grab one anyway and so you're going to eat it."

Face turns red. Mouth desperately wants to eliminate its contents without involving the throat in the unpleasantness of the situation. She looked at me again. "I don't like it."

"I know. Swallow it."

By now, I'm hoping that Mandy is thinking that maybe she really doesn't like tomatoes. ANY tomatoes. They're not going to get any better if she waits until the next batch comes.

She looked around the table at everyone else. No one volunteered any sympathy. Everyone else had lost interest in her predicament and was involved in other conversation. She was stuck with her mouthful of tomato.

"Swallow it."

I could tell that she was suffering, but like a good girl, she finally managed to choke it down. I praised her and gave her a drink of water. "Now," I said, "you're not going to help yourself to any more tomatoes, are you?"

"No."

"Do you know why?"

"Because I don't like tomatoes."

The really funny part came when Amy, who had been watching the whole episode, commented about what Mandy's face looked like with that tomato in her mouth. "She looked like she was meeting eat loaf."

We all got a huge laugh at Amy's little slip of the tongue. I don't think I'll ever look at meat loaf the same way again!

Music Practice

My kids are watching too much TV lately, I think. They're singing a song from one of their favorite movies:

"Git along home, Cindy, Cindy

Git along home, Cindy, Cindy

Git along home, Cindy, Cindy,

I'll marry you sometime."

Mandy started it. She doesn't know all the words to the verses, but she sure knows the chorus. And the boys joined right in so all three of them were singing just now. They sound good, too! I hate to make them stop to get busy with schoolwork. I'll log it in as music practice for today!

In case you're wondering, that song was from Rio Bravo, with John Wayne, Walter Brennan, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson. I'd rather it be that than some of the garbage on TV these days!

Gone Fishin'

Friday was a day to remember - we all went to the coast to go fishing! This is the first time in my life I've ever done any salt water fishing, at least that I can remember. We had a great time. The weather was perfect - 75 degrees and a little windy, but not too bad.

We went to Port Aransas where Gary had gone out with his co-workers back in November. The first place we considered was right out on the Gulf, and that wouldn't have been a great location because of the wind and high seas. The waves were extremely high and I'd have been a nervous wreck worrying about Mandy falling off the pier into the surf. So, we continued on a little way and found a nice spot on a pier in the shipping channel, where it was well protected. The water there was perfectly calm (except whenever a really BIG ship went by) and by the time we arrived, several people who had been there for a while decided they'd had enough, and they made room for us.

We started out with mud minnows, and while everyone to the right and left of us was pulling in one fish after another, we were getting a lot of nibbles but didn't catch anything. Then, a little while later, a kind gentleman asked us if we wanted his leftover bait, and we gratefully accepted. It was squid, and that seemed to be what the fish were really after! At that point, we started catching more fish than we could count. They were all hardhead catfish, and there were so many of them out there that we didn't catch anything else, with ONE exception - Tim caught an eel! Several people on the pier took pictures of him with his eel! We gave it to a couple of guys who wanted it for bait. They were even kind enough to take it off Tim's hook for him, which was good. I can deal with the catfish and their spines, but I wasn't interested in tangling with that eel's teeth.

I shared my pole with Mandy, because she wanted to catch a fish, too. She reeled in a couple of them and boy, was she happy!

Later in the day, I counted at least five fish that I caught on the same squid. I was amazed at how resilient those things are! During the course of the day, though, we lost quite a few of our hooks. The fish kept swallowing them. That was kind of aggravating because they were on steel leaders.

We each caught more fish that day than we've ever caught before. We threw all but one of them back, of course, because Gary hadn't brought a fillet knife and we really don't eat much fish anyway. But a very nice guy helped Gary fillet one of the biggest fish, and we brought home that and cooked it on the grill last night. Those who like fish said it was pretty good.

Another highlight was watching the dolphins out in the channel. I wish I'd had the equipment to get pictures of them, but they were too far away for that. But, we could see them quite well and they were really fun to watch.

We came back that night very late, very tired, and very happy - God allowed us to have a fun day and kept us all safe! We'd like to go out on a boat one of these days - maybe we'll catch something other than hardheads!